There are actually multiple IDEs out there for LaTeX that solve this problem, though I have found that once I learned the basics, they were unnecessary for me. I used Kile while learning LaTeX so I could look through the menus if I needed to.
There is also the part where if you guess the command you're likely right even. The commands aren't obscure.
Along with the shape of the finger, like the other commenter mentioned, there is also fingernails. Using my fingernail as a sort of built in stylus I can easily click on 5mm tall items on a palm pilot, and would expect to be able to reliably click on something 2-3mm in each dimension. It doesn't even require long fingernails, though it does require retraining yourself a bit to click and move with fingernails.
It does require some time to tweak ubuntu to run on old hardware - but talking about this being a time commitment is an exaggeration. While there would be reasons to install XP instead for familiarity, what software is to be used, or just to not worry about things, the amount of time it takes to get ubuntu to run on a 500MHz or slower machine is the time to look up a minimalistic window manager on google and then install it from the repositories.
I have run with an ubuntu install and wmii on a 300MHz machine with at most 128 MB ram. There is lag with things like firefox when you are talking about these old of machines, but it is useable if you need to and going to something like links2 removes that lag.
So yes, tweaking is required because ubuntu and many modern distros are not meant for old hardware. It is worth commenting that a small amount of tweaking can go a long way if you are fine with using fluxbox, a tiling window manager, or some other minimalistic window manager. In the situation which comments are stemming from the same amount of effort was put into making XP run as it would have taking to make the ubuntu install run at least as fast.
Comparing to the number of cycles for a lithium ion battery doesn't make sense as lion batteries don't primarily degrade from cycling. Unlike some other battery technology, there is a major difference between the battery life when you cycle a lithium ion battery 100 times repetitively, and cycle it 100 times keeping it at 100% for a month between cycles. While the first would have degraded some, the latter could have degraded enough to be mostly dead.
Stuff I have read had suggested that thinking of Finland's part of Lapland is usual. I think I have seen that they generally agree with the Finns with the fell he lives on (Korvatunturi). Rovaniemi also claims Santa living there, but
Joulupukki is still generally agreed to be from this fell.
From personal experience, I'd suggest that the issue with cleaning is much lower than people here are making it out to be.
I've had a laptop with a touchscreen for about 6.5 months. While my keyboard is my primary input device, the touchscreen is used for a majority of pointer based interactions. I have never had to clean my screen. You can sometimes see the fingerprints, but it has never interacted with my ability to view what is on the screen or reading anything. Changing the screen brightness or moving into different lighting often removes even seeing the fingerprints at all.
I have also found it is easier to hit buttons on the screen with a touchscreen - having only a single feedback loop you're dealing with and that precision has not been a problem. Using a stylus is also a possibility, though it requires picking up something else, and is nice to have as an option if not often used.
While I agree with the rest of the comments that the mouse is not going to go away in 5 years. I don't think the issues with a touchscreen are as much as they're made out to be.
That's surprising that the touchscreen doesn't work under linux. It must have something different than both the 27 and 19. The 19 has kernel drives for the touchscreen. The 27 there wasn't any drivers we could find for it, but it was a straightforward serial device (if you dump it to screen and touch it you get tx,y, let go rx,y (where x and y are the x and y coordinates))which did not take much work to get working.While its unlikely to be the same as the 27, for the 27 its just/dev/ttyS3.
I know at least on the toughbooks the touchpad that they use is specifically a pressure sensitive touchpad. You can even use them with a stylus if you're wearing that thick of gloves. This is so you can use gloves with it. There is also the fact that most toughbooks have touchscreens as well. In my experience I've not had issues with wearing gloves with the touchpad. An old laptop of mine I had tried using the trackpoint with gloves, and found it somewhat difficult, too much play with the lack of tactile feedback.
While a trackpoint may be nice, I know at least personally, I've had no issues with the lack of trackpoint and gloves (on my CF-19, also using a CF-27).
The Toughbook CF-19 is a fully rugged laptop which weighs 5 lbs. It's small, with a 10.4 inch screen. The problem with the size lays in the keyboard which is small enough that it takes some time to get used to (its a similar keyboard size to the EEEPC), but its not too bad. I've found with mine its small enough that its comfortable to wear around even on the back of a small person -which if under a coat hides the expensive machine you have. There are mount points on the laptop, and you can just connect a strap between opposite corners and wear it around with you. This is comfortable and can make it such that you don't leave your laptop anywhere.
They are expensive, but also shiny. And it's already possible to find them used for reasonable prices if you look enough on Craig's List. Mine cost $1000 and I've seen a few postings for $1500.
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There are actually multiple IDEs out there for LaTeX that solve this problem, though I have found that once I learned the basics, they were unnecessary for me. I used Kile while learning LaTeX so I could look through the menus if I needed to.
There is also the part where if you guess the command you're likely right even. The commands aren't obscure.
Along with the shape of the finger, like the other commenter mentioned, there is also fingernails. Using my fingernail as a sort of built in stylus I can easily click on 5mm tall items on a palm pilot, and would expect to be able to reliably click on something 2-3mm in each dimension. It doesn't even require long fingernails, though it does require retraining yourself a bit to click and move with fingernails.
It does require some time to tweak ubuntu to run on old hardware - but talking about this being a time commitment is an exaggeration. While there would be reasons to install XP instead for familiarity, what software is to be used, or just to not worry about things, the amount of time it takes to get ubuntu to run on a 500MHz or slower machine is the time to look up a minimalistic window manager on google and then install it from the repositories.
I have run with an ubuntu install and wmii on a 300MHz machine with at most 128 MB ram. There is lag with things like firefox when you are talking about these old of machines, but it is useable if you need to and going to something like links2 removes that lag.
So yes, tweaking is required because ubuntu and many modern distros are not meant for old hardware. It is worth commenting that a small amount of tweaking can go a long way if you are fine with using fluxbox, a tiling window manager, or some other minimalistic window manager. In the situation which comments are stemming from the same amount of effort was put into making XP run as it would have taking to make the ubuntu install run at least as fast.
Comparing to the number of cycles for a lithium ion battery doesn't make sense as lion batteries don't primarily degrade from cycling. Unlike some other battery technology, there is a major difference between the battery life when you cycle a lithium ion battery 100 times repetitively, and cycle it 100 times keeping it at 100% for a month between cycles. While the first would have degraded some, the latter could have degraded enough to be mostly dead.
Stuff I have read had suggested that thinking of Finland's part of Lapland is usual. I think I have seen that they generally agree with the Finns with the fell he lives on (Korvatunturi). Rovaniemi also claims Santa living there, but Joulupukki is still generally agreed to be from this fell.
From personal experience, I'd suggest that the issue with cleaning is much lower than people here are making it out to be. I've had a laptop with a touchscreen for about 6.5 months. While my keyboard is my primary input device, the touchscreen is used for a majority of pointer based interactions. I have never had to clean my screen. You can sometimes see the fingerprints, but it has never interacted with my ability to view what is on the screen or reading anything. Changing the screen brightness or moving into different lighting often removes even seeing the fingerprints at all. I have also found it is easier to hit buttons on the screen with a touchscreen - having only a single feedback loop you're dealing with and that precision has not been a problem. Using a stylus is also a possibility, though it requires picking up something else, and is nice to have as an option if not often used. While I agree with the rest of the comments that the mouse is not going to go away in 5 years. I don't think the issues with a touchscreen are as much as they're made out to be.
That's surprising that the touchscreen doesn't work under linux. It must have something different than both the 27 and 19. The 19 has kernel drives for the touchscreen. The 27 there wasn't any drivers we could find for it, but it was a straightforward serial device (if you dump it to screen and touch it you get tx,y, let go rx,y (where x and y are the x and y coordinates))which did not take much work to get working.While its unlikely to be the same as the 27, for the 27 its just /dev/ttyS3.
I know at least on the toughbooks the touchpad that they use is specifically a pressure sensitive touchpad. You can even use them with a stylus if you're wearing that thick of gloves. This is so you can use gloves with it. There is also the fact that most toughbooks have touchscreens as well. In my experience I've not had issues with wearing gloves with the touchpad. An old laptop of mine I had tried using the trackpoint with gloves, and found it somewhat difficult, too much play with the lack of tactile feedback. While a trackpoint may be nice, I know at least personally, I've had no issues with the lack of trackpoint and gloves (on my CF-19, also using a CF-27).
The Toughbook CF-19 is a fully rugged laptop which weighs 5 lbs. It's small, with a 10.4 inch screen. The problem with the size lays in the keyboard which is small enough that it takes some time to get used to (its a similar keyboard size to the EEEPC), but its not too bad. I've found with mine its small enough that its comfortable to wear around even on the back of a small person -which if under a coat hides the expensive machine you have.
There are mount points on the laptop, and you can just connect a strap between opposite corners and wear it around with you. This is comfortable and can make it such that you don't leave your laptop anywhere.
They are expensive, but also shiny. And it's already possible to find them used for reasonable prices if you look enough on Craig's List. Mine cost $1000 and I've seen a few postings for $1500.